A Cleveland Police spokesman said: "This extremely lucrative and creative scheme consisted of a private file-sharing website being set up. Membership was by invitation only.

"The site allowed the uploading and downloading of pre-release music and media to thousands of members.

"Members paid 'donations' via debit or credit cards, ensuring their continued access to the site."

The arrests took place in Teesside, following a raid on the servers in the Netherlands. IFPI spokespeople claim the site was responsible for "the leaking" of 60 pre-release albums this year:

They were encouraged to distribute recordings in the torrent file format with other OiNK members, and have to keep posting such music to the site to maintain their membership.

"Once an album had been posted on the OiNK website, the users that download that music then passed the content to other websites, forums and blogs, where multiple copies were made.

"Within a few hours of a popular pre-release track being posted on the OiNK site, hundreds of copies can be found further down the illegal online supply chain."

Although, really, it doesn't offer any evidence that OiNK was the point where these albums entered the internet; it seems likely it was just a clearing house that attracted more savvy users who reshared releases found elsewhere.